Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

If Deputy Barry does not arrive I will; if he does, I will share time.

How many thousand more Palestinians will be dead by the time the European Council meets next week? Some 16,000 have already died, 70% of whom were women and children. Children, including babies, accounted for 40%. How many more will be dead before the Taoiseach goes to the European Council next week? He told us that nothing can be done because other members of the European Union do not want to do anything about it.

If the Minister of State cares for the European Union, he should know that the moral credibility of the European Union is gone. It has been trashed. Everyone can see it. The European Union rushed to impose sanctions on Russia for an illegal invasion and murderous assault and stands by and either supports Israel in its actions, continues to arm it and trade with it or, at best, utters words of criticism but says there is nothing we can do while the slaughter continues. That is shameful.

Yes, the Irish Government is a bit better, although it took a while for it to drop the narrative of so-called Israeli self-defence. Even yesterday, the Taoiseach spoke about Israel's reaction being "disproportionate". We hear media and politicians describe Hamas's actions as barbaric and savage, but never hear them use those adjectives to describe what Israel is doing, although it has killed multiples of the numbers of people in Gaza - men, women and children - in recent weeks that Hamas did. They also continue to talk about Israel's so-called right to self-defence.

The whole thing hinges on this. Is the slaughter we are seeing in Gaza Israel's reaction to 7 October or is it an intensification of a brutal, murderous occupation that has continued for decades? You only have to ask the question to know the answer. It did not start on 7 October. It goes on in the West Bank all the time - the killing of Palestinians, illegal occupation, ethnic cleansing - and it has been going on for decades. There have been multiple reports condemning Israel for apartheid, war crimes and crimes against humanity and the world ignored them, gave Israel impunity and continued to arm and support it. This narrative of self-defence or overreaction by Israel is a lie and everyone knows it is a lie. This is a genocidal war in continuation of a policy of apartheid, dehumanisation and illegal occupation that Israel has been conducting for decades and which has intensified in recent years.

Look at the history of the struggle against South African apartheid. Who held out against the campaign to dismantle that regime? It was the United States, Britain and a number of other European countries. It was countries demanding sanctions that led to the fall of apartheid South Africa. I urge the Government to please act by doing the same.

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